Job 17:1-16

  • Job’s reply continues (1-16)

    • “Mockers surround me” (2)

    • “He has made me an object of scorn” (6)

    • “The Grave will become my home” (13)

17  “My spirit has been broken, my days have been extinguished;The graveyard awaits me.+  2  Mockers surround me,+And my eye must gaze at* their rebellious behavior.  3  Please accept my security, and keep it with you. Who else will shake hands with me and pledge in my behalf?+  4  For you have concealed discernment from their heart;+That is why you do not exalt them.  5  He may offer to share with his friends,While the eyes of his children fail.  6  He has made me an object of scorn* among the peoples,+So that I became one in whose face they spit.+  7  From anguish my eyes grow dim,+And all my limbs are but a shadow.  8  Upright people stare in amazement at this,And the innocent one is disturbed over the godless.*  9  The righteous one keeps holding fast to his way,+And the one with clean hands grows stronger.+ 10  However, you may all come and resume your arguing,For I have not found anyone wise among you.+ 11  My days are finished;+My plans, the desires of my heart, have been shattered.+ 12  They keep turning night into day,Saying, ‘Light must be near because it is dark.’ 13  If I wait, the Grave* will become my home;+I will spread out my bed in darkness.+ 14  I will call out to the pit,*+ ‘You are my father!’ To the maggot, ‘My mother and my sister!’ 15  Where, then, is my hope?+ Who can see hope for me? 16  It* will go down to the barred gates of the Grave*When we all descend together into the dust.”+

Footnotes

Or “dwell on.”
Lit., “a proverb; a byword.”
Or “the apostate.”
Or “Sheol,” that is, the common grave of mankind. See Glossary.
Or “grave.”
That is, my hope.
Or “Sheol,” that is, the common grave of mankind. See Glossary.